3 Philadelphia men exonerated after nearly 30 years in prison

Three Philadelphia men left prison this week after nearly three decades behind bars, ending a case that prosecutors say rested on flawed forensic testimony and a lone witness whose credibility had collapsed.

Jermel Shuler and Rasheed Turner were released Tuesday, and Marc Brittingham followed Wednesday after a judge vacated their convictions in the 1997 killing of 73-year-old Essie Thomas, also identified in some records as Essie May Palmer. Outside a corrections institution in Chester, Pennsylvania, Shuler and Turner waited to greet Brittingham as he came out, then embraced him in front of family members and supporters. The scene marked the first time the men had been together as free people since their arrests.

The three men had been convicted of second-degree murder in November 1998 and each received a mandatory life sentence. But the case never had the kind of proof juries often expect in a homicide trial. Reporters and prosecutors said there was no physical or forensic evidence tying Shuler, Turner or Brittingham to Thomas’s death, and no witness said they saw or heard the attack itself. Instead, the case turned on an eyewitness account and testimony from an assistant medical examiner about the victim’s time of death, evidence the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office later said was badly compromised.

The District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit reopened the case and found what officials described as significant issues with the medical examiner’s testimony. A board-certified forensic pathology expert reviewed the file and challenged the original time-of-death range, undercutting the timeline prosecutors had used to match the eyewitness claim that the men were seen leaving Thomas’s home on Saturday night, Nov. 8, 1997, the last day she was known to be alive. NBC Philadelphia reported that Judge Jennifer Schultz also cited the medical examiner’s disciplinary record when she vacated the convictions. Matthew Stiegler, who supervises the Conviction Integrity Unit, said the clearing of all three men on the same day was unprecedented.

For the men, release brought relief mixed with disorientation. Shuler told ABC News Live Prime, “I feel overwhelmed, but I feel good,” while Turner described re-entering society as “nerve-racking” and said trying to adjust felt like chaos around him. The Innocence Project said it had reviewed the case beginning in 2009, and attorneys and prosecutors ultimately agreed it could not stand. After nearly 30 years, the convictions are gone, but the harder work of rebuilding family ties, finding housing and work, and living with the trauma of prison remains.